The present invention relates to an endoscope system including an electronic endoscope, and a processor that processes an image signal output by the electronic endoscope and transmits the processed image signal to a displaying device.
Conventionally an electronic endoscope provided with an image capturing element such as a CCD (Charge Coupled Device) at a tip portion thereof IC used in association with a processor which processes an image signal output by the image capturing element and outputs the processed signal to an outputting device such as a display or a video printer.
Such a processor is generally provided with an illumination device which emits light for illuminating an object to be observed to a light guide for the electronic endoscope. Typically, such a processor employs a so-called surface-sequential method for obtaining a color image. That is, such a processor is provided with an illumination device that emits three beams having three primary colors RGB (Red, Green and Blue) sequentially at a predetermined interval to illuminate the object, and the processor synthesized the images corresponding to the three colors RGB to generate a color image.
Such an electronic endoscope and processor are provided with electronic devices such as an image capturing element, image processing device, a precise mechanism such as a filter mechanism for generating three color components sequentially, and expendable supplies such as a lamp. Therefore, maintenance of the electronic endoscope system is generally performed by a trained person periodically.
Generally, however, one trained person is required to perform maintenance jobs for a plurality of endoscope systems. When the endoscope at remote areas area subjected to the maintenance, the trained person may be required to visit the remote area, which increases maintenance cost of the endoscope system. Further, in such a system, when a problem occurs, it is very difficult to fix the same promptly.